Mother pleads for information in son's fatal shooting

Monday

Dec 3, 2012 at 4:54 PM

Rayshard Mitchell, 23, was shot in the stomach outside his cousin's house on Verdell Street.

LYDA LONGASTAFF WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH — The last thing Georgia Cord heard on Saturday evening before she went to retrieve her laundry from the back porch was that her grandson Rayshard Mitchell was going out to dinner with a girl. The young man had been on a couch dozing off, when his cellphone rang, Cord said Monday. About 20 minutes later though, Cord heard something terrible when her daughter Jennifer Cord called her on the telephone. Mitchell had been been shot on Verdell Street just two blocks away. "I never even heard him leave," Cord said Monday afternoon. The 23-year-old Mitchell was shot in the stomach right outside his cousin's house in the 600 block of Verdell, said Trent Cooks, the man who found Mitchell's body. It's not clear why Mitchell was walking on Verdell and whether he planned to first stop at his relative's home before going to eat. Mitchell was staying with Cord on Loomis Trail.It's also unclear who Mitchell was meeting that night for dinner, but minutes after he was killed, his cellphone — next to his body on the street — rang, said Cooks. "It was a woman who said her name was Cassandra and she asked me where Rayshard was," Cooks said. Cooks, who is engaged to Mitchell's cousin and lives at the Verdell Street house, said he heard a "pop" sound that night just before 7 p.m. He said he asked his fiancee whether she heard the same thing and she said she had, Cooks said. At that point, Cooks saw a black sport utility vehicle outside and he noticed that the two people in the vehicle were asking someone who was lying on the street whether he was all right. Cooks went outside and when he approached the body — the man was face down — he said he realized it was Mitchell. "I told his cousin it was Rayshard and to call 9-1-1," Cooks said. "Then his cellphone (Rayshard's) started ringing." Cooks said he asked the couple in the black SUV whether he should answer the cellphone and they said yes. "It was a woman on the other end and she said her name was Cassandra," Cooks said. "She asked me where Rayshard was and I told her he was hurt." Cooks then handed the cellphone to his fiancee. Mitchell's mother, Jennifer Cord, who lives nearby with Mitchell's two younger brothers, said her son — who did have a criminal record — did not have any known enemies. She said Mitchell's passion was music and singing rap. "He was a good kid, he was a really nice person," Jennifer Cord said. "He had his dreams like everyone else." Describing her relationship with Mitchell and her two other sons as "a tight-knit family," Jennifer Cord said Mitchell regularly walked from her house on Caroline Street to his grandmother's residence on Loomis Trail. "I don't think he would be walking to and from if he thought he had any enemies," Jennifer Cord said. She said she hopes someone comes forward with information concerning her son's death. "I'm making a plea for people to come forward if they know what happened to my son," Jennifer Cord said. Anyone with information is asked to call Daytona Beach Detective Bridget Hayden, 386-671-5263.